1. Field
The following relates to a semiconductor arrangement having at least one semiconductor device having a semiconductor path made of an organic semiconductor.
2. Background Information
Transponder technology uses contactless reading from or writing to a memory with a transmitter/receiver unit. The memory is part of a memory unit fixed, for example, to an object about which specific information is stored in the memory. Usually, the circuit comprising the memory does not have a dedicated power supply, but rather, is supplied via an alternating electromagnetic field by means of which the integrated circuit at the same time communicates with the transmitter/receiver unit. To that end, carrier frequencies of 125 kHz and 13.56 MHz are customarily used. This technology is used for example for finding and identifying pipelines that are buried in the ground and are therefore inaccessible, for identifying animals in large herds, or else in access cards which enable their owners for example to access specific access-restricted areas.
The microchips used in such systems are based on silicon as semiconductor material. Therefore, despite the advanced fabrication methods, the fabrication of the memory unit which can be read from and, if appropriate, written to with a transmitter/receiver is still comparatively complicated and expensive. In the case of the areas of use mentioned above, these costs are not significant since the memory unit usually remains on the object over a relatively long time or is used for high-priced goods. However, there are a host of conceivable fields of application for transponder technology in which, although only a small amount of information has to be processed, on the other hand a severe cost pressure prevails, that is to say the memory units used heretofore are ruled out for cost reasons for application in everyday practice.
A considerable cost reduction and time saving could be achieved for example by use of RF-ID tags (Radio Frequency Identification Tags) in the retail trade. Thus, by way of example, the merchandise can be provided with RF-ID tags on which information concerning the merchandise is stored. This information may be, for example, the price, the use by date or else the end store in which the merchandise is to be sold to the customer. If it is also possible to write information to the RF-ID tag, the manufacturer can already provide the merchandise with all the necessary information, e.g. the price and the end store allocated to the merchandise, on the basis of an electronically incoming order. This enables the logistics to be simplified further since the merchandise can e.g. be manufactured in an automated fashion and be allocated to an end store. In the end store, savings can be realized in the cash desk area, for example. When passing a cash desk, the information concerning the merchandise is transmitted contactlessly to the cash desk. The cash desk determines the price, automatically creates an invoice and balances the merchandise stock. In conjunction with a cashless electronic payment transaction, any loss of time in the cash desk area for customers is obviated. At the same time, the requirement for new merchandise can be electronically reported automatically to the manufacturer.
In order to be able to implement such sales systems competitively in practice, the price of an RF-ID tag for the applications described above must not exceed that of a conventional bar code tag. In other words, the production costs must be in the region of fractions of cents. This results in the requirement that the RF-ID tags can be produced in a short time and in large quantities. Furthermore, the tag must have properties such as a high robustness, or a low weight, in order to be able to be processed without difficulty, or else a high degree of flexibility, in order to be able to be fixed even on curved areas such as the surface of a bottle. Although silicon chips can be fabricated in very small layer thicknesses, so that they become flexible, these methods are likewise very complicated and expensive, with the result that they are ruled out for the applications described. On the other hand, however, the requirements made of the RF-ID tag with regard to storage quantity and storage density are comparatively minor for the applications described above.